BBC survey shows 50% of Brits not saving into pension

A recent BBC survey found that half of UK adults aged 20 to 60 are not saving into a pension. The survey of 1358 people by Gfk NOP suggested that only 36% of under 30-year-olds are paying into a scheme. The numbers improved marginally for those aged between 41 and 60, with 55% of this age group contributing into a scheme.

Reasons given for not contributing included redundancy and women who had never joined a pension scheme because of leaving full-time work to have children. Among the under 30s group, reasons given included job insecurity, the burden of student loans, the complexity of setting up a pension and the length of time until retirement.

Ironically, despite only 36% of respondents under 30 having a private pension, half of all those who took part in the survey said they were still confident they would be able to have a comfortable retirement. However, for the 45% of 41 to 60-year-olds not currently saving, the prospect of working well into old-age looms heavy on the horizon.

The introduction of personal accounts, due to be rolled out in 2012, is widely seen as the government’s attempt to mitigate the potential pensions ‘time bomb’. Under personal accounts, employees will be automatically enrolled in a scheme.